The Princess and the Philosopher: Letters of Elisabeth of the Palatine to René DescartesRowman & Littlefield, 1999 - 187 Seiten For a number of years, those interested in recovering women's thought have known about Princess Elisabeth, a seventeenth-century correspondent and friend of Descartes whose questions provoked the philosopher to think more seriously about ethics and the passions. Up to now, only a few of her letters have found their way into print. This volume includes translations of all of Elisabeth's extant letters to Descartes, as well as of other materials relevant to understanding her philosophical perspective and her life. Nye has supplemented the translations with a running commentary on the historical, biographical, and intellectual context of the letters. The letters were during a tumultuous time in European history. A devastating Thirty Years War had ruined Elisabeth's family and devastated their principality, the Palatine. On his part, Descartes was increasingly embroiled in bitter controversies surrounding his work in relatively free-thinking Holland. In her commentary Nye shows how personal experiences energized his and Elisabeth's different views of the relation between mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature of morality. What Nye evokes, along with the thinking of an extraordinary woman, is an alternative model for philosophy, a nonadversarial form of dialogue that does not pretend to objective theorizing. Such a philosophy depends on mutual respect and trust, on concern for the other's sensibilities and views, on friendship between women and men with a common concern for human life. |
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Seite x
... kind of philosophy could it be that is expressed in personal correspondence ? The letters translated in this volume are one answer to this question . One might cite many reasons why philosophical exchanges such as that between Elis ...
... kind of philosophy could it be that is expressed in personal correspondence ? The letters translated in this volume are one answer to this question . One might cite many reasons why philosophical exchanges such as that between Elis ...
Seite xi
... kind of philosopher . For her , philosophy and science had to be lived , had to meet the test of experience . No theory of ethics and morality could be accepted if it resulted in pain or enmity . Descartes is often credited with ...
... kind of philosopher . For her , philosophy and science had to be lived , had to meet the test of experience . No theory of ethics and morality could be accepted if it resulted in pain or enmity . Descartes is often credited with ...
Seite xii
... kind of philosophical interchange : not debate between professional rivals fighting for academic advantage , not bruising battles of wits between antag- onists forced into increasingly alienated and defensive positions , but frank and ...
... kind of philosophical interchange : not debate between professional rivals fighting for academic advantage , not bruising battles of wits between antag- onists forced into increasingly alienated and defensive positions , but frank and ...
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Inhalt
The First Overtures | 5 |
Body and Soul | 11 |
The Scent of a Rose | 16 |
An Initial Disappointment | 21 |
The Uses of Mataphysics | 24 |
A Test | 30 |
The Philosophic Muse | 34 |
DoctorPhilosopher | 38 |
The Prince | 102 |
Magic Powers | 109 |
An Ungrateful Disciple | 114 |
An Accusation of Blasphemy | 120 |
A New Patroness | 125 |
The Purloined Letters | 132 |
Affairs of State | 138 |
On the Advantages of Partition and Death by Beheading | 145 |
A Life Blessed with Happiness | 48 |
The Burden of Civility | 58 |
A Discourse on Prudence | 61 |
The Consolations of Theology | 72 |
Traitor to the Cause | 77 |
A Silence between Friends | 84 |
Master of Passion | 89 |
A Certain Languor | 96 |
Murder in the Streets | 99 |
A Royal Summons | 151 |
Reason in the Service of Sense | 158 |
In the Land of Ice and Snow | 163 |
The Abbess of Herford | 169 |
Notes | 175 |
183 | |
185 | |
About the Author | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
able advice affairs affectionate friend Anna van Schurman answer assured believe body Bohemia brother Cartesianism Catholic cause Chanut Charles-Louis Christina court danger Descartes's Discourse Discourse on Method doubt Dutch Dutch Republic effects Egmond Elisabeth emotion Epicurus favor feel fortune France French friendship give Hague happy Heidelberg Herford Highness Holland honor hope House of Orange ideas illness interest judge Krossen Labadists letter live marriage matter Meditations metaphysics mind Monsieur Descartes moral mother necessary never obliged one's oneself pain Palatine passions peace person philosophy physical pleasure Pollot prince of Orange Prince Rupert princess Protestant prudence queen question rational reason received René Descartes Rhegius sadness satisfaction seems Seneca Sister of Prince someone soul spirit Sweden tell theologians things thought tion treatise trip trouble truth understand Utrecht virtue Voetius woman worry write wrote young
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Seite iii - Rhine, of right claimeth a memorial in this discourse ; her virtue giving greater lustre to her name than her quality, which yet was of the greatest in the German empire. She chose a single life as freest of care, and best suited to the study and meditation she was always inclined to ; and the chiefest diversion she took, next the air, was in some such plain and housewifely entertainment, as knitting, &c. She had a small territory which she governed so well, that she shewed herself fit for a greater.
Seite 185 - ... Synthese (Fall 1995) on feminism and science. She is coeditor with Jack Nelson of two forthcoming volumes Feminism, Science, and the Philosophy of Science and Rethinking the Canon: Feminist Perspectives on Quine. ANDREA NYE is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Her books include Feminist Theory and the Philosophies of Man, Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic, Philosophia: The Thought of Rosa Luxemburg, Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt, and...